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Important Notice of Security Incident
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this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2025
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I am curious as to why people thing Plex is self hosting if Plex can change how your server functions? I have never personally considered it self hosting but do others still think it is?
Yes. It’s running on my server. That I host.
And you fully control the service?
Depends on how you use it. Doubtful anyone here has the Plex devs on payroll... Not any other self-hostable softwares devs .. updates will come.
Because you are hosting the server software on your own hardware. That's literally self-hosting. Plex provides a way to remotely access your server through their own network as well, which is optional.
The problem with Plex is it isn't fully hosted. Plex controls user passwords. You can't use it without logging into their servers.
You can access it through your local network without authentication. Add a vpn and you got the same setup Jellyfin fans will praise
Not really. The first local login to configure it requires a Plex account. And that account times out maybe monthly? It seems every few months when I remote to the Plex server it wants the plex account to login.
On a side note: you can remotely access any service running on home network via Tailscale[1] / Cloudflare Tunnel. Your services are never exposed on Internet. Moreover, you don't need to rely on Plex for that.
[1] https://tailscale.com/ [2] https://developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/connections/connect-networks/
Tailscale is going public, so I don't really trust them anymore. I used Cloudflare tunnels for a while, but I strongly dislike being dependent on them for accessing my own network, and I don't like how they recently clamped down on "anti-piracy". There are some legitimate sites I still can't access (dirtbike parts and whatnot) because Cloudflare straight up blocks access to them.
Go with pangolin. You can easily host the control layer either on a cheap vps or your own internet exposed server. Same features as tailscale although with a bit more complexity.
Even if the source code is open?
Android is open source and look what Google is trying to do with that.
By your logic the *arr suite isn't self hosted either since they rely on metadata cache servers.
In fact Jellyfin relies on external services for their metadata too!
Plex is self hosting, the auth is not.
So is the auth needed to set up your plex in the first place? It has been forever sence I used it.
no, the auth to use it at all ... internet goes down and you can't watch your own movies on your own network. peak self hosting.
You can add IPs that are allowed to use it without auth. The software itself is running on your own server.
That's simply not true. You can just set your local ip range as unauthenticated and use it to your hearts content without an internet connection.
Ok that is good to hear!
Even though there are some cloud services like remote server management, proxies, and 3rd party integration, I do actually have to run the software myself on my hardware. Hence, self hosted.
How is that any different than any other software package? Unless you're coding it yourself, things can be changed without your permission.
And even if you do code it yourself, you may have dependencies that do undesirable things outside your control.
Jellyfin I don't have to update if I don't want to. Jellyfin can't force me to update by taking a function I currently have away or force my to pay to keep using it the way I currently am. With open code I can fork it and keep it at the version I want if I choose.
At least for now. Jellyfin was spawned from Emby who also decided to go closed source at one point. You're still at the whim of strangers and what they want to do with the product they developed.
Regardless, the debate isn't about "Plex vs Emby," it's whether "Plex is self-hosting" or not.
You are a bot? That's what I'm seeing in Boost anyhow
Just asking a question looking for answers, not a not. Cheers mate.
it's just a sivilian being sivil.
WTF that is bull
You appear to have labeled your Lemmy account as a bot account.